The Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party today termed Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar’s statement as an attempt to hoodwink the international community, saying that Kashmir is an internationally recognized disputed territory awaiting final settlement in line with UN Security Council resolutions.
According to Kashmir Media Service, reacting to Jaishankar’s recent remarks on Kashmir, DFP spokesman Advocate Arshad Iqbal in a statement issued in Srinagar said that such baseless statements reflect his willful ignorance of over a dozen UN-mandated resolutions that bear witness to the territory’s disputed status and call for a referendum to allow Kashmiri people to decide their political future. ‘Kashmir, a long-outstanding dispute, has been pending on the UN agenda for the past seven decades,’ Iqbal said, adding that the Indian minister is in the habit of issuing misleading statements aimed at distorting historical facts about Kashmir.
The DFP spokesman reminded the UN of its obligations towards the peaceful settlement of the lingering dispute, saying it is high time for the international community, especially the UN, to come forward and play its much-needed role to resolve the Kashmir issue and stop the ongoing violation of human rights in occupied Kashmir.
Referring to the highly volatile situation in the troubled territory, he said that since 1947, the unresolved dispute has led to widespread deaths and destruction in Kashmir. Kashmiris have been bearing the brunt of violence and India’s state terrorism for several decades. ‘Innocent people of Kashmir are being killed, harassed, humiliated, and tortured every now and then by Indian trigger-happy forces,’ he said, adding that Kashmir has been turned into a virtual hell for its residents by India’s fascist regime.
Reiterating his party’s call for holding a referendum to allow Kashmiris to determine their political future, he said that implementation of UN Security Council resolutions and holding a plebiscite under UN auspices is the only way forward to resolve the dispute peacefully.
He said that India needs to realize that it cannot suppress Kashmiris’ legitimate struggle by killing innocent civilians, imprisoning Hurriyat leaders and activists, or simply caging dissent and dissenters in the territory.